June 27, (THEWILL) – There was no better way for the utterly dominant and ridiculously brilliant FC Barcelona women’s team to finish the record-setting season than with the flourish of a 9-1 complete walloping of 14th-placed side Eibar. With four of the nine goals, Mariona Caldentey had cause to celebrate her 200th appearance for Barca.
There was much significance to the game than the remarkable scoreline presented on the surface. It was the final game for team manager Lluis Cortes and for team captain Vicky Losada while Jennifer Hermoso confirmed her position as the league’s top scorer by adding a final day hattrick to her haul
But, it was a match that gave the 2,120 fans allowed into the Estadi Johan Cruyff grounds of Barca ladies, their money’s worth in excellent football quality and pure entertainment from the get go. Eibar was barely able to get into gear before the siege began and the barrage of goals did not let off such that there were no less than seven goals in the first half.
A first half hattrick by Jennifer Hermoso brought her collection of goals for the season to 31 establishing her undisputed claim to the Pichichi award of the Iberdrola league, as the highest goal scorer. A brace from Mariona and a goal from Alexia rounded off the scoring to six goals in the first half for the Blaugranes.
However, Arola Aparicio got her name in the scoresheet of the one-sided first period with a goal for the visitors, which Eibar welcomed as a consolatory gesture for themselves after the thorough trouncing they got in the first 45 minutes.
There was more of the same Barca control in the second period. With the fans urging them on, the champions turned the screw on the hapless ladies of Eibar as Mariona made it 7-1 not long after the restart.
There was a Vicky Losada moment in the 72nd minute, when the outgoing team captain was substituted to a standing ovation in her final game in a Barca shirt and her teammates gave her the “Pasillo”, the typical Spanish football Guard of Honour, often used as a mark of traditional sportsmanship and recognition of achievements.
The overwhelming of Eibar was completed with another Mariona specialty for her fourth of the day to which Laia Codina added one of hers to make it nine goals in all for Barcelona.
The win is Barca’s 33rd victory in 34 matches with the only blemish that kept them from an invincible winning streak coming against Atletico Feminino, a 4-3 loss on Tuesday, June 1. Asisat Oshoala’s 18 League goals contributed to the tally of 167 goals the ladies scored while letting in only 15.
It was a perfect end to a campaign where the team won everything on their path to win such that it ended as a perfect treble winning celebration for the Catalan side. They capped it off with 99 points from 34 games, which is a massive 25-point gap from second-placed Real Madrid.
As expected, Barca’s Sandra Panos, the league’s safest hands, picked up the Golden Glove for the most clean sheets, to add to Hermoso’s Pichichi for the collection of laurels by the side. Added to these, Oshoala’s team hit another landmark by scoring their 200th goal of the season in all competitions during the match.
There will be challenges ahead of next season especially with getting used to the coming of a new manager after the confirmation of the exit of coach Cortes. The 34-year-old leaves by mutual agreement and finding a like-for-like manager to fill his shoes and bring these monumental results will be the headache of the club management.
Apart from the exit of the pair of Cortes and Losada, 31-year-old French midfielder, Kheira Hamraoui, is also leaving Barca this summer. It will be altogether a slightly new Barca ladies team when the next season comes along but for now, it is celebration galore for an all-out brilliant season.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
